Tuesdays with Torbee

I got up to Madison early enough last Friday to do a nostalgia bike ride through my old east side neighborhood with an old friend. This was the friend that talked me into making some extra cash as a 14-year-old in 1985 selling $1 Coca-Colas during home game Saturdays at Camp Randall.

The Badgers in 1985 — helmets sporting the old “block” W rather than the whooshy motion letter introduced in the Alvarez era — limped to a pedestrian 5-6 overall record, 2-6 in conference to finish 8^th in an actual 10-team Big 10. I mostly remember wet and cold hands, wads of damp singles shoved in my pockets and fans of the #1 Iowa Hawkeyes filling up about 25,000 of the camp’s 80,000 seats in the Hawkeyes’ 23-13 victory over a surprisingly scrappy but over-matched Badger team that season.

So when the 2025 Badgers came out Saturday in throwback 1980s-style helmets and Bucky shoulder patches, my old home week vibes thrummed even harder. The Badgers were bad in the 1980s, but at least those teams played hard and with heart.

Whatever Luke Fickell is trying to do in Madison is not Wisconsin Badger football. As longtime readers of this column know, there are few games I want Iowa to win more than the annual tussle against the Badgers. But as much as I enjoyed the second-in-a-row thorough beat down the Hawkeyes put on their cheese-filled rivals, I legitimately felt sympathy for the sullen Badger fans surrounding us in the stands Saturday.

To their credit, the stadium was near-capacity at kickoff and was poised to have something, anything to cheer for. But as Iowa slowly throttled their team, a low murmur of discontent interspersed with the occasional curse permeated the bowl. Even the “Fire Fickell” chant in the first quarter from the student section seemed half-hearted and a bit apathetic. They didn’t even bother encoring it in the second half, with the mass exodus coming with Iowa leading 30-0 as Jump Around blared before the beginning of the fourth quarter.

This may be an unpopular opinion in Hawkeyeland, but I truly believe Badger fans deserve better than whatever this is. The rivalry also deserves better. It’s not that fun kicking a guy when he’s down.

I am also patting myself on the back for saying the day the Fickell hire was announced that he was a downgrade from Paul Chryst. Fickell’s single season as Ohio State’s interim coach should have been a massive red flag. Yes, the Buckeyes were in transition, but they still trotted out a roster better than the majority of the Big 10, yet Coach T.E.A.M vest couldn’t manage a .500 record. Fun fact – the combined record for Ohio State in the years before and after his single season? 24-1.

The guy doesn’t have the coaching chops for the Big 10 and he will be shown the door soon. It will be interesting to see if Wisconsin goes back to their roots for the next hire.

As for Iowa, taking advantage of a mentally and physically broken Badger team was a perfect bounce back from the heartbreaking loss to what looks to be a legitimate top 5 Indiana. Quarterback Mark Gronowski looked a little shaky and gimpy in his return from injury, but the play-action pass game looked super threatening, even on some plays that were missed. If Iowa can continue to run the ball effectively with its plethora of solid running backs, that passing game has the potential to be fairly deadly.

The young guns at linebacker were flying all over the field and the Hawkeye defensive line looked menacing, both rushing the passer, stuffing the Badger running game and snagging a pair of interceptions, including one near-touchdown. Yes, Wisconsin is pedestrian, but the defense is starting to look like a vintage Phil Parker crew and that can only bode well.

With all the other insanity going on around the Big 10, a resurgent Iowa team suddenly finds itself still in the thick of the conference title race. Some fans were doubting bowl eligibility just two weeks ago.

What to make of a reeling Penn State coming into Kinnick for a night game without its starting quarterback and an interim coach after the sudden execution of James Franklin? Will they circle the wagons or will they rally for their new leadership? It’s too soon to tell, but it makes for a more compelling match-up than what looked like a mismatch preseason.

Iowa football is so much more fun when the stakes are high, and thanks to both its own tenacity and the fickle nature of this year’s conference power structure, we are now deep into October with meaningful football games on the docket.

I enjoyed reminiscing about my past in Madison this weekend. But the present is much brighter for fans of Iowa than the Badger.

Follow me on BlueSky @torybrecht.bsky.social, Substack Notes, and look for the revamped 12 Saturdays podcast on all platforms.